Nothing
by hangthesilver
Summary: Riku's pretty sure he's got it all figured out, except for three seconds that is. Non-AU, drabble-type


**Title: **Nothing  
**Rating: **G  
**Characters: **Mostly **Riku **and **Roxas**. No, not together. Mentions of a sexy **Axel, **a stupid **DiZ, **a briefly mentioned **Namine,** some weak **Dusks, **and a not yet conscious **Sora.**  
**Summary:** Riku's pretty sure he's got it all figured out, except for about three seconds that is.  
**Notes:** I took liberties. No idea if this is how it played out in Twilight Town after DiZ and Riku disappear with Namine at the Mansion. Just a viewpoint. Don'tkillmekthnx.

For about three seconds he slightly regretted what was happening.

He'd already regretted losing himself, and he would never forgive himself for losing his light. His appearance now was his own fault and he'd never blame anyone for that. He had tried to blame the boy in front of him now, but really, whose fault was is in the first place that he even existed? Not his own fault, certainly.

Arms folded, then unfolded by his side as he leaned up against the wall instead, warily watching the girl in the corner. She was sitting with her knees pulled up against her chest, enormous blue eyes watching the screens that were perfectly lit and not perfectly cracked. She was easy to subdue, and she was going to be easy to eliminate. As he watched her, he saw something quivering in those bright eyes of hers, almost like tears but not. She wasn't supposed to be able to feel anyway. Turning his head back to the monitors, he licked his lips a little, his mouth feeling suddenly dry as he saw the boy on the screen enter the room with the fake terminal. He wasn't supposed to be able to feel, either.

But as he watched, the blonde-haired boy approached the bank of computers and started to clutch his head. The robed man right here, in front of this terminal, clicked a few more buttons and the computer beeped affirmatively as the boy on the screen squeezed his eyes shut, fingers fisting his own hair, and then his eyes snapped open. Some sort of heaving animal seemed to be moving through him as suddenly the light around him changed and the blade appeared in his hand. Little grunts of agony pushed past his lips, and through his teeth, and the blade smashed down again and again and again against the fake computer, sparks flying, the screens cracking and the metal bending.

The one watching blinked. Not in the days he'd been following the blonde haired boy had he seen a display like this. There was never any real emotion around this nothing—there was only indifference and near the end, anger. Emotions he didn't really feel. Emotions that didn't exist and things that never would be. Hate, betrayal, fear—maybe he'd felt those. And this was anger, but there was something else striking in those blue eyes of his, and Riku could only hold his breath as the boy turned away from the demolished computers and went toward the door that opened behind him, closer to the white room, closer to the end of whatever story was being written about him.

He was nothing, and as he entered the next room, other nothings appeared as well. The light changed again, and the blade appeared again in the hand that wasn't worthy to wield it. It flashed, down and down and down, and there was again something in those eyes that Riku couldn't shake, that he couldn't help knowing, or connecting with. He'd made a move to go, because this would ruin their plans, because beyond the nothings that he could see, there moved another red-haired nothing, stronger than the ones before it. But the one in the chair stopped him, serenely, and it would be better if this battle was fought without help, because beating into submission the red-haired nothing was something that the blonde haired nothing was going to be able to do. And maybe, just maybe, that would help the something in the white room just a little bit more.

The red-haired nothing appeared after the others had been vanquished, and in those blue eyes Riku saw something like recognition, almost like a plea for help, but it vanished as the fire sprang up from the floor, the ceiling, the walls, the spinning points of metal in that curled around that slender waist. And this time the light changed twice, and in those unworthy hands appeared two blades, ones that Riku recognized. He made a little noise in his throat, about to ask a question, but the chakram suddenly flew forward, through the waves of fire, around and around, and the blonde haired boy rushed forward to meet the red-haired one and there was something heartbreaking about the scene that Riku felt deep inside his chest, something that these nothings in front of him would never experience.

It wasn't fair, and it wasn't right, to feel like this. For things that were destined to die and things that had no point in existing anyway. There were cries over the monitors, and shouts and little pointed words, but in the end the red-haired nothing was on the ground, panting, dark arms of black nothing curling around him in a smoky haze. And the blonde haired boy watched and he spoke the name, almost like pain, almost like he could feel something, and there shifted something in his eyes that Riku almost recognized again, but ignored it. There were a few words, remorseful, they almost sounded, but of course not. Never. He was making something out of nothing.

And the short boy blinked a few times, and then looked around the room. Nothing. So he went to the next door, because there was nowhere else to go, and his feet made a clacking noise against the metal panes, the crevices, and he paused in front of the pods, where there hung two creatures that he knew the names for, but not the purposes. If he had known that, then he would know what was in the room beyond, the room that was glowing white around the edges of the door, that perpetually bright and perpetually gloomy room that rank of extended death and sharp bursts of life.

Hesitance, and in the corner the skinny girl with the enormous eyes made a soft noise. When Riku swung his head that way, she was blinking slowly, again and again, as though to block back tears. But she couldn't cry, and she wasn't supposed to be able to feel—if the nothings on the screen couldn't, then she couldn't either. She was going to be easy to eliminate. Easy to execute. Maybe easier than what was about to take place in the next few seconds.

The blonde haired boy went through the door, where the smoky white curled around his feet and made the air hazy, the monitors dimmed. He went forward, steps echoing through the hollowed out room, where there was nothing save a few chairs, the enormous pod, and the robed man that suddenly appeared out of nowhere, out of nowhere with the intention to send this nothing back into the nowhere it had come from. The air shimmered around, as the voice coming from the robed man turned into amusement, and the sounds issuing from the blonde haired boy turned into nothing but sounds of anger. Anger, Riku knew, that wasn't real. Anger that was fake.

The blade sloshed around, through the invisibility of the robed man, and suddenly in front of the blonde haired boy the pod began to open. The girl in the corner made a little noise and Riku felt his heart skip, skip, skip a beat. The petals of the pod unfolded, almost welcoming, and hanging in the haze was a body and Riku felt his heart skip, skip, skip a beat again. Messy hair, a clink of metal, and a flash of yellow. It was the same as he remembered, had always remembered, that memory that had been pushed beyond for a little bit by the meddling girl in the corner, but she had put it back together again, at least. At least it was right, it would be right, it was going to be alright, because the nothing in front of the pod where rested the something was starting to speak, the blade in his hand dragging along the ground.

Something else shifted in his blue eyes, and something was breaking inside his eyes, inside his voice, but not inside his heart, because he didn't have one. But to see those eyes, and to hear the pitiful sound, for three seconds, Riku felt that maybe everything about this was completely wrong. In three seconds, though, it had disappeared. He wasn't losing anything by this. He was gaining back what he had lost and putting back together what he'd fought against and found. The air shimmered again, and there was nothing there, just like before, only the white, hazy smoke and the something that was starting to come alive just inside the pod inside the empty white room.


End file.
